Experiences that shape the world.

Braintrust Creative

Braintrust Creative (BTC) is a creative agency in Buford, Georgia. It’s also the agency I’ve called my full-time home since summer 2018.

Drew Kimball, BTC’s founder, wanted a new identity for the company that was truer to itself—more playful and focused overall. And I spearheaded our rebranding efforts.

Problem

BTC not only needed a visual identity—it needed a brand identity. That meant figuring out who Braintrust is, why Braintrust is, and how to express it all through copy and design.

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Solution

A new-and-improved, truer-to-self, full-fledged brand, complete with a core identity, ideological framework, messaging strategy, visual style, marketing plan, and brand assets.

Old

New

The new logo—a brain with BTC hidden in its folds—captures the balance of playfulness, strategic thinking, and creativity that makes Braintrust special.

The brand strategy

Whenever we had time between projects, the team would gather to answer Who is Braintrust? Why do we exist? What are we like? …and every other existential question a business could ask.

That meant tons of meetings, back-and-forths, and of course, writing on the wall.

Before any graphic design work, we had to tackle BTC’s core identity:

A mission statement that answers Why does Braintrust exist?
Values that unpack What does Braintrust believe in?
Attributes that describe the personality of Braintrust.

In all our conversations, one thing rang true:

Braintrust is all about experiences.

Every project that comes in the door—logos, openers, conferences, murals, animations—everything is an effort to build an experience.

And we found that, underneath those efforts was a desire to make the world a better place. Experiences bring people together and change the world, and Braintrust leverages that power to shape the world for good.

So here’s where we landed:

And what does Braintrust value?

And what’s Braintrust like?

Before moving onto the visual identity, we also created:

Voice Guidelines so anyone could write in BTC’s voice.
An Ideological Framework that contextualizes the core identity.
Slogans.

The Visual Identity

After nailing down BTC’s core identity, we moved on to its visual style. The new logo has a balance of playfulness and strategic thinking that was completely missing from the original.